House Passes STEM Immigration Reform. Racialists Go Crazy.

This week the House of Representatives made a positive move in reforming the US immigration process by passing the STEM Jobs Act sponsored by Lamar Smith (R-TX).

STEM Jobs Act of 2012 – Amends the Immigration and Nationality Act to make up to 55,000 visas available to qualified immigrants who:
(1) have a doctorate degree in a field of science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM degree) from a U.S. university;
(2) agree to work for at least five years for the petitioning employer or in the United States in a STEM field upon being lawfully admitted for permanent residence; and
(3) have taken all doctoral courses in a STEM field, including all correspondence courses, while physically present in the United States. Makes any such unused visas available to aliens who:
(1) hold a master’s degree in a STEM field from a U.S. university;
(2) agree to work for a total of at least five years for the petitioning employer or in the United States in a STEM field upon being lawfully admitted for permanent residence;
(3) have taken all master’s degree courses in a STEM field, including all correspondence courses, while physically present in the United States; and
(4) hold a baccalaureate degree in a STEM field or in the biological and biomedical sciences.

This act does what our immigration policy should do: ensure a higher level of economic growth in the United States by encouraging the brightest and most talented students in the world to become permanent residents of the United States. It also reduces the wait for the families of the visa recipients to receive residency visas which is now at least two years.

“Many of the world’s top students come to the U.S. to obtain advanced degrees in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) subjects,” he said in a statement. “We could boost economic growth and spur job creation by allowing American employers to more easily hire some of the most qualified foreign graduates of U.S. universities. These students have the ability to start a company that creates jobs or come up with an invention that could jump-start a whole new industry.”

He also stressed the family component.

“The bill puts families first, allowing the spouses and minor children of legal permanent residents to come to the U.S. after waiting one year for their green cards,” Smith said. “The current green card waiting list is over two years and it has been much longer in the past. This provision will help keep families together rather than leave them miles apart while waiting to legally come to the U.S.”

It also eliminates the grotesque “Diversity Visa” lottery program which divvies up some 55,000 visas each year among applicants from countries that are deemed to have low immigration rates to the United States.

Now the left is all aflutter that yet another source of recruiting for the various ethnic ghettos is endangered.

“It is so disappointing [that] the majority decided to undermine an area of bipartisan agreement on STEM visas by loading up the measure with provisions that are a slap in the face to the core values of the United States,” said Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., and one of the Congress’s most vocal proponents for immigration reform policy that would provide undocumented immigrants a path to legalization.

“If you support this bill, you are saying that one group of immigrants is better than another and one type of educated, degree-holding person and their work is more important than anothers,” Gutierrez said. “In order to give visas to those with PhD’s and Masters’ Degrees, Republicans make two demands. First, we take away visas and the only means of legal immigration (most likely) from 50,000 people who may not have PhD’s or Master’s Degrees. Talk about picking winners and losers. My dad, if he had been an immigrant from Ireland or Nigeria or Taiwan would have been told ‘Nope.’ America is not for you. It is like when we used to have signs saying ‘Help wanted, Irish need not apply.’

It doesn’t matter that Luis Gutierrez wouldn’t recognize a core value of the United States if one leapt out of the tall grass and latched onto his butt. This statement reveals the true purpose of the Democrat’s immigration program is not to bring in persons most likely to be productive citizens, rather they are interested in bringing in people who are most likely to become government dependents if not actual wards.

His objection is in equal parts stupid and noxious. The elimination of the diversity visa program will not restrict the ability of people from any area of the world to apply for an visa to immigrate. What it will do is place everyone on the same level playing field by not not bringing in an arbitrary number of people from a few favored countries.

More important, something that Mr. Gutierrez doesn’t seem to understand, is that there is no right to immigrate. Being allowed to live and work in the United States, and to eventually become a citizen, is a privilege granted to relatively few. As a nation we have a responsibility to ensure that we bring in people that have the best chance of supporting themselves and contributing most to the nation. So he is correct that we are choosing winners and losers. The difference being is the winners this bill chooses are people with advanced degrees who speak English and who have progressed by dint of hard work. The winners Mr. Gutierrez and his ilk would choose are people at the bottom rungs of the socio-economic ladder who have a greater propensity to be the recipients of government largesse and become Democrat voters.

The doggerel written by Emma Lazarus that is now associated with the Statue of Liberty is not now, nor has it ever been, US immigration policy. Lamar Smith’s bill points the way forward in reforming our immigration process and ensuring we invite in potential productive citizens and not act as a receptacle for the most needy and least capable.